30 April 2012 Edition

Julia Carney

It’s Fine Gael’s way

» Julia Carney

And to those who say we sold out, I have a simple question for you . . .

DELEGATES, members, unthinking Labour lobby
fodder . . . I would like to welcome you to our Annual Conference here in
Galway where we celebrate 100 years of a party founded by James Connolly and
Jim Larkin to achieve a socialist republic.

I have no doubt if they were here today
they would have a lot to say to us.

As they gaze up at me from their seats
somewhere down the back, they would be stunned by the rows and rows of elected
Labour Party representatives gathered here behind me working tirelessly every
day to ensure Fine Gael stays in government.

Little could they have known, all those
years ago, that after a century of effort we have climbed this far. Picture
their faces, fellow delegates, the tears running gently down their cheeks as
they see all that we have done and accomplished in their name.

For they know our struggle has not been
without hardship.

We knew when we made the momentous decision
to enter government that our road would not be easy. It would be hard, possibly
tolled, and certainly hemmed in by lots of people with placards.

But we were determined to persist, to put
aside the cheap slogan dreamed up by someone long since airbrushed from our
party’s history of it being “Labour’s way or Frankfurt’s way.”

Labour in government has ensured that it
has been Fine Gael’s way. And if this is basically indistinguishable from
Frankfurt’s way, then this does not mean that we have failed. It simply means
that we have succeeded in a different way, proof again of Labour’s ability to
innovate, to imagine and to create.

But being in government is not just about
giving Fine Gael the space to do what is necessary and ensuring pension bumps
for our ministers. Labour too has a role to play. Enda himself told me once
(when we ran into each other in the men’s room) that they are very important
jobs. Very, very important.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has
been fearless in her chasing down of single mothers with young children, one of
the most powerful economic blocs in Irish society. Other governments have
feared to challenge them, knowing of their immense political influence and
media dominance, but Joan is implacable in her pursuit of this most parasitic
of vested interests.

Education Minister Ruairí Quinn is as
determined as ever in ensuring the millions wasted every year in educating
children in disadvantaged and working-class communities is recovered. Only by
doing this can we ensure that Fine Gael is able to keep its pledge to maintain
low tax rates for those patriotic and selfless men and women earning six-figure
salaries.

There are those outside this venue who
disagree with some of the decisions Fine Gael has taken and that we have agreed
with after being told what they are. That, of course, is their right. Labour
has always supported the right of people to peacefully protest when Fine Gael
has said that we might. But there is a difference between peaceful protests and
protests that disrupt our carefully choreographed conference.

Such protests are nothing less than a
bitter assault on democracy by people who hate freedom. In the days of my old
political mentor back in the Workers’ Party, Kim Il-Sung, it would have been
the gulag for the lot of them.

Let me send a clear message to these
so-called protesters: This Government will not be intimidated; this party will
not be intimidated; and I will not be intimidated . . .

(We might be told what to do, by Enda or by
Phil, or by this guy Kevin they have working for them who’s generally the one
who sends the texts, but there is a world of difference between that and
intimidation.)

And to those who say we sold out, I have a
simple question for you: If Labour has sold out, then what have we gained? The
very notion of selling something suggests we must have got something in return
but we all know that we have got nothing, absolutely nothing at all!

That, my friends, is the answer to those
who make such baseless accusations against our party.

Fellow delegates, go forth from this
convention centre with your heads held high and your eyes darting back and
forth in case there are any protesters about. Be proud of what Fine Gael has
accomplished for they could not have done it without you. Be proud of what you
have done with the legacy of James Connolly and Jim Larkin. So very proud.

And, above all, remember that the Irish
people know what we have done, and what we plan to do, and in the fullness of
time, they will have their opportunity to reward us.